Valujet crash on Mayday - question

[mnztr]

As usual a pretty good documentary on this tragic crash. I remember it pretty clearly. One question that was not answered was, if the pilots had donned their smoke masks and not lost consiousness, would it have been possible to land the plane before it disintegrated? When I first heard about the crash the assumption was the fire and burned through the control cables, but the finding was that the crew was overcome by fumes. Could they have made it? Although I think they did a good job of focusing on cargo safety, I think the neglected to stress the importance of using breathing apparatus as soon as there is smoke in the cockpit. One can never tell exactly what type of fumes are in the smoke.

[grimey]

I'd guess that even if it had made it back it would have been a deadlier replay of ACA 797, where the plane made it down safely but people couldn't evacuate in time (on AC because of a flashover & smoke inhalation, on Valujet because of smoke inhalation). I could be wrong, but I think they were screwed as soon as the fire started.

[mnztr]

I'd guess that even if it had made it back it would have been a deadlier replay of ACA 797, where the plane made it down safely but people couldn't evacuate in time (on AC because of a flashover & smoke inhalation, on Valujet because of smoke inhalation). I could be wrong, but I think they were screwed as soon as the fire started.

Yes I know it would have been very dicey, unlikely that all would have made it out alive, but even AC797 had more then 50% survival rate...

[lilflyboy262]

And even 1 survivor is better than 0...

[lostaviator]

I know one person who has been faced with smoke in the cockpit before. Was lucky enough to keep a tight circuit after departure, and land within a minute or two. Said once they were back on the runway, within 30 seconds, couldn't see out the front anymore.

A fire as intense as on Valuejet... It would have been a miracle if they would have found a runway with the cockpit visibility they would have had.

[pelmet]

The loss of control was most likely the result of flight control failure from the extreme heat
and structural collapse; however, the Safety Board cannot rule out the possibility that the
flightcrew was incapacitated by smoke or heat in the cockpit during the last 7 seconds of the
flight.